I'm a finalist-3 times over!

Kendra over at Me & My Insanity is holding her 2nd annual Blogoversary Party. 3 of my parties made it into her TOP 10! One of them is my most popular party-the Mad Hatter Tea party.

The second one is the Breakfast at Tiffany's party my tea group threw for our friend Suzanne for her 50th birthday.

The third one is my Slumber party. It was also featured on HWTM a few weeks ago.

Lastly, my Indiana Jones party got an Honorable Mention for one of the best Adventure parties.

Please head on over to check out all of the amazing parties and VOTE for your favorite. The winner gets a $30 gift certificate to Paper and Cake. I just LOVE them! They did my son's custom paper for his Adventure party.

National Chocolate Cake Day!

This is a holiday I could really get in to!

I've Gone Mad!

... Mad for the new Alice in Wonderland movie coming to theaters on March 5 (my wedding anniversary). Since I introduced my Mad Hatter Tea party in July, it has quickly become my most popular party. Not only with children but with adults as well; I hosted a 65th Un-Birthday party.

Please check out the Movie Trailer. It is so amazing...I can hardly wait!

I have had calls from brides asking if I rent out the party for showers or wedding receptions. I love this Save-the-Date card from Grey Like Weddings. It is a universal theme!

Sweet Dreams

Melissa at A Little Loveliness hosted the sweetest slumber party for her oldest daughter, Mary Ashley.

The invitations were personalized paper dolls of the birthday girl herself in a hand made bed.

Melissa made coordinating pajamas for her daughters and all of the guests.

The party table was set up like a bed similar to the one in my slumber party. The details are just amazing. Melissa is such a talented mother and gives such thought and love into everything she does for her family. Another beautiful celebration, Melissa!

Design Dazzle Feature

My friend, Toni, at Design Dazzle was so sweet to post my Indiana Jones party.

Fabric Favor Bags

I am in the middle of putting together an American Girl Felicity colonial party. I LOVE history and this party has been so fun to put together! For the favor bags, I want to make fabric bags in period looking fabric. These bags I found at various UK and Australian sites have been a great inspiration.

The favors consist of wooden dominos, wooden spinning top, wooden yo-yo, jacks and old fashioned candy sticks.

I'm going to buy flour sack cloths at the dollar store, cut them in half and have the girls sew on a ribbon tie (sewing kit is also a favor) to make an apron to wear. I'm also going to make mob caps for them to wear during the party, teach them period dancing and games. Stay tuned for table settings!

Last Minute Baby Shower

Disney over at Ruffles and Stuff had only 2 days to put this adorable baby shower together and on a miniscule budget. She is one crafty chick!

Your Child's Artwork

How cool is this? Turn your child's artwork into canvas art ready to hang in your home.
Check out this website.

Home Improvement

New shutters!
Last Sunday, I replaced the 20 year old shutters on the 2nd story of my house. They were made out of wood and MDF and they were falling apart. The old shutters are on the left and the new set on the right.

I took them off with the claw end of the hammer while my son held the ladder for me.

I attached 2 shutters by hanging out my daughter's window.

Now they match the front door that I painted last month!

Dismantling the Establishment

Well, not really the establishment but a Rose Parade float. Sheridan and I signed up for Disneyland's "Give a Day, Get a Day" program. If you volunteer for a day, they give you a Disneyland pass for your effort. Since we already have season passes, we donated ours to the Boys and Girls Club.

We worked on the City of Burbank's Rose Parade float that won the Animation Award. Do you remember seeing it going down Colorado Blvd.?

Sheridan had a blast! I need to tell you something about my only daughter. She likes to clean toilets. So when the volunteer leaders asked us to clean buckets using toilet brushes, Sheridan's face lit up. We also cleaned floral tubes (water tubes that hold individual flowers on the float) with wooden sticks. We did this for 3 hours before our lunch break.

Let me tell you, I'm sure it's a lot more fun putting the float together than it was taking it apart! It was a great experience with my daughter. I hope in December, we will be able to put together the 2011 float!

It was amazing to see what it took to put this together. There were 274 volunteers and it took 7 hours to take the float apart.

I've had a VERY busy week and will try to post the festivities soon :)

Happy Birthday to you...

Today I turned 45. The tempurature today was 77 with a cool breeze.

I went to the movies with my girlfriend and saw "Leap Year". It reminded me why I married an Irishman. :) My friend also gave me a tiara with pink stones and "made" me wear it. Yeah, like she had to make me! My kids will play "Today is your Birthday" by the Beatles on Rock Band after dinner for me. I'll try to record it :)

I also went and had a pedicure. I haven't had one since June 2004. I made another appointment for 2 weeks. Why did I wait so long to have one?

I had many birthday wishes on Facebook. Even from my cousins back East and from high school friends.

I went to Bristol Farms and bought a carrot cake cupcake for myself and vanilla ones for my family. I will order some yummy Italian food from a restraunt that I have eaten at since I was 2 years old.

I have so many blessings in my life and I am so thankful to have met so many wonderful people through blogging. You truly enrich my life! I'm looking forward to another amazing year!

Mary Poppins in Los Angeles

For Sheridan's birthday in November, my mom offered to buy her a ticket to see Mary Poppins the Musical. Tickets are hard to come by and expensive. Last night, I took Sheridan and we had a blast. Gavin Lee played Bert and he is from the original London cast and Ashley Brown is the original Mary Poppins from Broadway in New York.

My kids and I are theatre veterans and I must say that Mary Poppins musical lives up to all of the hype. It was the best show EVER! Even though they had technical difficulties half way during the first act (the house set that opens like a pop up paper doll house broke down), the show was amazing! Sheridan woke up this morning singing Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious and she wore her shirt today with the song's title on it.

Here is a picture of Sheridan wearing the Jolly Holiday dress from the movie. I have a Mary Poppins themed party in my business and it is quite popular. If Mary Poppins travels near you, please visit her spit spot!

Honorable Mention

I was just metioned on Hostess with the Mostess blog!

Jaime from Giggledust Parties made up this amazing Night Owl Slumber party for her daughter and it was featured on HWTM. She listed my Slumber Party as her inspiration. Thanks so much Jenn and Jaime!

Memories of Birthdays Past

My birthday is on Monday January 11 and I thought I would post a few of my old birthday pictures. I don't have very many because film was a precious commodity and used sparingly.

This is my 7th birthday, quite possibly my favorite. It really sticks out in my mind because I got a card from one of my grandmother's friends and it had a punch out crown. I thought that was the best!

Don't you love the party hats?

My parties were very simple...Pin the tail on the Donkey, Hot Potato, Musical Chairs, cake and ice cream and then open presents. It seemed to be the same each year.

Another thing that was the same every year was where my mom got my birthday cake- Martino's Bakery in Burbank. It is still in business and I love to get their maple tea cakes!

This is my 10th birthday. This is the birthday when I received my 10 speed Free Spirit bike. It was white with blue and red stripes and it made me feel so grown up. My previous bike was pale pink with a banana seat, a plastic wicker basket on the front handle bars and a playing card clothes-pinned to the spokes. The 10 speed was definetly a more mature bike.

Later, I will post some pictures from my 40th birthday Parisien Soiree!